Gianfrancesco Ruberti della Grana

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Biography

Ruberti has been identified as a young goldsmith first mentioned in Mantua and called gentil maestro on 12 February 1483. He was then recorded as working on arms intended as a gift to the Sultan of Turkey, and as beginning to strike coins by an improved method in March 1492.[1] He was sent to Milan in 1517, and to Venice in 1497 and 1526; was recorded as master of the mint at Mantua; and continued to work for the court until at least 1526.

The medal of Francesco II (NGA 1957.14.663.a,b) is the only medal signed by Ruberti. A large group of plaquettes, signed IO.F.F., formerly was ascribed to the artist.[2]

[1] Antonino Bertolotti, Artisti in relazione coi Gonzaga duchi di Mantova nei secoli XVI e XVII, Mantua, 1885: 89; Antonino Bertolotti, "La arti minori alla corte di Mantova." Archiv 15 (1888): 274, 276, 277, 192, 302.

[2] John Pope-Hennessy, Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars, London, 1965: nos. 97-110; Terni di Gregory, "Giovanni da Crema and his Seated Goddess," The Burlington Magazome 92 (1950): 159-161; Christopher B. Fulton, "The Master IO.F.F. and the Function of Plaquettes," Studies in the History of Art, 22 (Italian Plaquettes, ed. Alison Luchs) (1989): 156 n. 3, rejects the attribution.